Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

It's a music-heavy weekend around Fort Worth, with events that will transport you to far-off places like New Jersey and Paris. Among your choices are a hit Broadway musical, a musical variety show, four days of classical music, a play both timely and timeless, two country music concerts, Shakespeare from the experts, and more.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, February 14

2019 Cliburn Festival: Iconic Paris
The Cliburn Festival is a four-day, five-program event that will feature works by Saint-Saëns, Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Franck, and more. Each of the Paris-themed concerts will take place at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and will feature the Rolston String Quartet. Additional performers will include pianists Dasol Kim, Louis Schwizgebel, and Joyce Yang, among others. The festival will conclude on Sunday.

Broadway at the Bass: Jersey Boys
Go behind the music and inside the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in the Tony Award-winning true-life musical phenomenon. From the streets of New Jersey to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the musical features legendary top 10 hits like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like A Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)," and more. It will play at Bass Performance Hall through Sunday.

Casa Mañana presents Melanie Brook
This show at Casa Mañana Theatre is part concert, part variety show, part sing-a-long and heart-to-heart. Actress/singer Melanie Brook, who's appeared on stage, in films, and on TV, sings hits from the golden age of Broadway to the golden age of Ariana Grande in hopes of discovering who the hell she is. She'll perform three times through Saturday.

Stage West Theatre presents Are You Now or Have You Ever Been...
On the eve of his appearance before the Senate Permanent-Sub-Committee on Investigations on Un-American Activities, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, American writer Langston Hughes fitfully attempts to compose a poem. This inspired-by-true-events lyrical drama examines not only the tense yet necessary relationship between art and politics, but also the emotional and deeply personal connection between the artist and his craft in the face of oppressive power. The play will run at Stage West Theatre through March 10.

Friday, February 15

ConDFW XVIII
ConDFW is a literary science fiction and fantasy convention featuring writing/publishing-based programming, science programming, a collection of local North Texas and national authors, artists, and other guests, a charity book swap, board gaming, and a slew of non-traditional activities such as the Sci-Fi Spelling Bee, Celebrity Artemis, and a Poetry Slam. The convention will take place at the Radisson Hotel through Sunday.

Stolen Shakespeare Festival: Henry VIII
As part of the annual Stolen Shakespeare Festival, the Stolen Shakespeare Guild will present Henry VIII. One of Shakespeare's final plays, it is a political thriller based on the power struggle between the Tudor court and the eponymous king's ambitious first minister, Cardinal Wolsey. Though famous in its own time as the most extravagant of the playwright's creations, the work is hardly performed today. The production will play six times through March 2 at Fort Worth Community Arts Center. It will run in rep with Wolf Hall, which starts on February 22.

LoCash in concert
LoCash is a rising pop country duo featuring singers Chris Lucas and Preston Brust. Their first two albums, 2013's LoCash Cowboys and 2016's The Fighters, were modest successes, and they've also written hits for the likes of Keith Urban and Tim McGraw. They'll play at Texas Live in Arlington in support of their new album, Brothers, which is scheduled for release on March 29.

Saturday, February 16

Monster Energy AMA Supercross
Monster Energy Supercross is the most competitive and highest-profile off-road motorcycle racing championship in the world today. Part aerial excitement, part high-speed chase, Supercross was founded and sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association in1974 and is currently co-sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme, the official global governing body for motorcycle racing, thus making it a formal World Championship. The event will take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Dwight Yoakam in concert
Country star Dwight Yoakam was unstoppable in the late 1980s, opening his career with three straight No. 1 albums. He hasn't exactly been a slouch since then, with all but four of his 17 studio albums reaching the top 10 on the country charts, including 2016's Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars.... Fans can expect Yoakam to regale them with all his hits at this concert at Billy Bob's Texas.

Sunday, February 17

Houston Film Commission and the Lone Star Film Society presents Texas Filmmaker's Showcase
With the Oscars being one week away, the Houston Film Commission and the Lone Star Film Society will celebrate filmmakers who have not yet made a national impact. The Texas Filmmaker's Showcase features a variety of short film screenings, with filmmakers coming from Dallas, Austin, Houston, and De Kalb. The showcase will take place at Four Day Weekend Theater.

Stolen Shakespeare Guild presents Henry VIII, playing at Fort Worth Community Arts Center through March 2.

Photo by Jennifer Stewart

Stolen Shakespeare Guild presents Henry VIII, playing at Fort Worth Community Arts Center through March 2.

event-planner

Movie Review

Horror comedy film Y2K dials into nostalgia of '90s techno-mayhem

Photo courtesy of A24

Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, and Julian Dennison in Y2K.

Movies that rely on nostalgia can be successful if they’re timed right. Generally, 25-30 years seems about the right amount of time to try to take advantage of people’s fond feelings for a certain era, which is why movies/TV shows about the ‘80s have been prevalent for much of the 21st century, and ‘90s-set films started to pop up in the last 10 years.

Y2K, a horror comedy that plays on the fears of technological mayhem many people thought would happen at the turn of the century, is right on the cusp of that rule, taking place 24 years after its timeline. It centers on two teenage boys, Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), who are opposite in demeanor but have an unshakeable bond. Eli likes a popular girl, Laura (Rachel Zegler), and Danny convinces him to crash a New Year’s Eve party where she’ll be.

As the clock strikes midnight and the year moves from 1999 to 2000, everything that uses an electrical current goes haywire, with many of them combining forces to attack the humans around them. Eli and Danny find themselves on the run with Laura, as well as two stoners, Ash (Lachlan Watson) and CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), with each of them trying to use their unique skillset to help defeat a growing robot army.

Directed by Kyle Mooney and written by Mooney and Evan Winter, the film lands some solid jokes about the era in its opening 20 minutes or so, whether it’s the extreme slowness of dial-up internet, the goofy user names from AOL Messenger, or the various high school cliques of the time. However, many of them seem to echo ones told in 1999’s American Pie, a weird kind of art-imitating-art moment instead of commenting on real life.

The jolt of the machines attacking partygoers seems to promise a fun-if-bloody romp, but Mooney and Winter don’t seem to know where to take the story. They establish the computer bona fides of Eli and Laura early on, but when it comes time for them to put their talents in action, it feels like two actors going through the motions instead of real people who know what they’re doing. Almost none of the characters are believable or entertaining, and the few that rise above are dispatched way too early.

And because the filmmakers don’t make you care about the main group, nothing they face is that interesting, either. The villainous robots are made up of a bunch of disparate parts, which would seem to offer the opportunity for funny sight gags. Mooney and his team fumble most of their chances, though, leaving that side of the story stuck in limbo where it’s not absurd enough to be hilarious or scary enough to really count as horror.

Martell, Dennison, and Zegler are each rising stars who have their individual charms, but only Dennison is able to make much of an impact. Zegler, who starred in West Side Story and will soon be Snow White, is especially misused. They try to shoehorn in a cameo by Limp Biskit lead singer Fred Durst, but his appearance makes little sense and adds almost nothing to the story.

Filmmakers who want to mine nostalgia, especially in a comedy, need to really commit to the bit instead of throwing in a few references and needle drops. Mooney, who’s making his directorial debut, demonstrates little feel for timing, and so most of the film is like a car spinning its wheels, going nowhere.

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Y2K opens in theaters on December 6.

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